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5.0 out of 5 stars
Reads just like a thriller, but it's all true, September 24, 2008
First off, the copy I have is titled: "Napolean and the Pope", which may be a different edition.
At any rate, this is true history that reads like a thriller.
It's the story of Napolean, who, at the height of his power, kidnapped the pope and tried to force him to cave in to his wishes.
The pope in question, Pius Vll, had been a Benedictine monk. Quiet and contemplative, when told he was elected to the papacy, he burst into tears.
The Church had endured much in the previous decades. Intellectuals like Voltaire penned attacks on the church, and, during the French revolution, the church was one of the first targets. Priests were slaughtered, their bodies mutilated. Nuns forced from their convents, imprisoned, or guillotined. Church property seized.
Now Napolean was in control. Napolean lusted for power and religion was beyond his comprehension, save as a source of power. He cared so little for the religion of his childhood that, in Egypt, he readily posed as "the champion of Allah...(and) the enemy of the pope" (p 8).
Yet much of Europe remained stubbornly Catholic. Poland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and the Rhineland were still devout, even as Napolean's armies marched across Europe.
So. Here was the emperor Napolean, the greatest conqueror since Alexander the great, who had vast armies and territories under his control. Against him stood a frail, elderly pope, who had spent most of his life praying in a small cell. You wouldn't think the pope would prove much of a challenge.
Certainly Napolean didn't think so. When the pope proved recalcitrant, he kidnapped the pope and put him in the hands of Miollis. "Miollis suffered from the same delusion as Napoleon that the pope was a mild, soft man, and that it was only necessary to remove from him his 'evil counselors' in order to make him amenable".
But the pope would not be moved. They isolated him, wouldn't let him write anyone without censoring, and still the pope would not be moved. There were even rumors he was drugged.
Finally the emperor ordered the pope put in shabby clothes, and transported at midnight to Fountainebleau. The hasty trip nearly killed the ailing pope. The emperor actually ended up coming to Fountainebleau, and spent six days of alternately yelling at Pius and smashing crockery. Some reports say he actually personally injured the pope. And still the pope would not be moved.
Years later, when Napolean had lost everything and was imprisoned on a small island, "Pius intervened on Napolean's behalf" ((p 206).
Well, of course.
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